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Víctor Manuelle has teamed up with Henry Cárdenas‘ CMN Events (Cárdenas Marketing Network) for his new tour, Retromántico, and future performances as an exclusive agent, Billboard Español can announce. The collaboration covers all markets, including United States, Latin America and Europe. It does not, however, include Puerto Rico. The deal, according to CMN, promises to […]
A woman who filed a lawsuit accusing former Recording Academy boss Neil Portnow of rape is now moving to drop her case, citing concerns that her name will be revealed and a dispute with her own lawyers.
In a letter filed Sunday without the help of her attorneys, the Jane Doe accuser told a Manhattan federal judge she was “unable to proceed with the case” because of “fear of potential grave harm” if her name is disclosed in court documents, as Portnow’s attorneys have formally requested.
“The circumstances surrounding this case have created a genuine concern for my safety, and emotional well-being,” the woman wrote in the letter, obtained by Billboard. “Dismissing the case would alleviate this fear and allow me to move forward without unnecessary risks.”
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A day after the unusual letter, the woman’s lawyer moved to withdraw from the case immediately, saying the relationship with his client had “deteriorated beyond repair.”
“Unbeknownst to counsel, plaintiff filed a letter on this court’s docket requesting voluntary dismissal of her case,” Doe’s attorney Jeffrey Anderson wrote. “Plaintiff’s action in filing it demonstrates the irreconcilable differences that provide a basis for withdrawal.”
The news of Sunday’s letter was first reported Wednesday by the New York Times.
The unnamed woman sued Portnow in November, claiming that he had drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2018. She also named the Recording Academy as a defendant, saying that the group’s negligence had enabled Portnow’s conduct. The case was part of a wave of sexual abuse lawsuits filed against powerful men in the music industry in late 2023.
But on Sunday, she sent a letter directly to the judge without the aid of her attorneys, announcing that she wanted to drop the case. The Jane Doe said that it was “impossible for me to proceed with the case in all aspects” and that dismissing the case would be in “the best interest of all parties.”
The sudden reversal appears to have been sparked by efforts from Portnow’s attorneys to force her to reveal her name. In an April filing, his lawyers claimed that she wanted to “use anonymity as a shield” while embarking on a “public relations campaign to destroy Mr. Portnow’s reputation.”
A previous ruling, when the case had originally been filed in state court, had allowed the Jane Doe to proceed under the pseudonym. But Portnow’s lawyers said that ruling had no binding effect on the case after it had been moved to federal court in January.
In a response last week, Doe’s lawyers argued that disclosure motion should be denied. Citing his client’s “fears of stigma and emotional distress,” Anderson warned that “public identification puts plaintiff at risk of retaliatory harm” and could deter other abuse victims from coming forward.
But in her letter to the judge on Sunday, Doe said that her lawyers had privately disclosed to her on April 26 that they believed Portnow’s demand to reveal her would be granted. She quoted from emails in which another attorney told her: “Our view is that they will prevail on that motion and your name will be made public which will cause harm to you and your reputation.” Anderson allegedly wrote that the move to federal court meant that “your name can no longer be protected” and she faced “grave further harm.”
Doe also claimed that Anderson had informed her that he would no longer be representing her in the case, telling her in a May 1 letter that “the best route would be for you to find a new attorney.” She warned the judge that he had “ignored” her requests for more information, and that his public opposition filing to Portnow’s disclosure demands “did not accurately reflect my position.”
“This misrepresentation has significant implications for the case,” Doe wrote in her direct letter to the judge on Sunday. “I am deeply concerned about its impact.”
Anderson did not return a request for comment from Billboard on Wednesday.
In court filings on Tuesday, attorneys for both Portnow and the Recording Academy asked the judge for more time to consider how to proceed after Doe’s request for voluntary dismissal. Neither immediately responded to requests for comment.
The dispute in the Portnow case comes two months after a different federal judge ruled that one of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ accusers would have to reveal her name to proceed in her case. In a February ruling, the judge acknowledged that disclosure “could have a significant impact,” but that allowing cases to proceed under a pseudonym in the U.S. court system was “the exception and not the rule” and that “generalized, uncorroborated” concerns about privacy were not enough.
Warner Chappell Music has announced Delia Orjuela as its new head of creative Mexican music/música mexicana. Based out of Los Angeles, the veteran executive will report to Gustavo Menéndez, WCM’s president, U.S. Latin & Latin America.
In 2021, Orjuela joined Warner Music Latina to lead the label’s Mexican music division where she guided the careers of artists like DannyLux, who is among the new generation of música mexicana hitmakers. Last year, her and Ruben Abraham were appointed co-leaders as the label doubled down on their commitment to música mexicana.
According to a press release, in her new position, Orjuela will continue to “collaborate closely” with the recorded music team and look for cross-collaboration opportunities between the label and publisher.
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“I have spent most of my career advocating and championing songwriters, and they’ve remained my true passion,” Orjuela said in a statement. “Music is incredibly powerful, and I love how a great song with meaningful lyrics can impact people’s lives. I’m so glad to once again be a part of the songwriting process from the beginning, helping to set up collaborations and nurture creative connections. This next step in my career brings everything full circle, and I can’t wait to hit the ground running with Gustavo and the incredible team at WCM.”
Prior to joining Warner, Orjuela was the longtime vp of Latin creative for BMI, where she worked for 22 years. She left in 2019 to start “a new chapter” in her life. That same year, she was appointed president of Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame.
“Delia and I have known each other for years, and what started as professional respect has grown into a deep and genuine friendship,” Menéndez added in a statement. “She’s fiercely passionate about empowering music creators and providing them with the right tools to amplify their voices on a global scale. We’ve already started to pull together exciting plans with [Warner Music Latin America president] Alejandro [Duque], and her natural instinct will drive remarkable success in one of today’s fastest-growing genres.”
In a joint statement, WCM co-chairs Guy Moot (CEO) and Carianne Marshall (COO) expressed: “Delia has supported countless songwriters and established a reputation for energizing teams and elevating music. We see huge potential to create timeless songs in the Mexican music market, and her leadership will help us continue to develop songwriters who shape culture.”
Austin’s South by Southwest conference and festival is heading to the United Kingdom, marking the first time that the world-famous event has been held in Europe.
Due to take place over one week in June 2025, the inaugural edition of SXSW London will follow the same format as its Texas-based forerunner and feature “inspiring and challenging” keynote talks, music performances and showcase leading innovations in tech, gaming and film, organizers said in today’s announcement. Names and details of who will be appearing will be announced in the coming months.
Held annually in the city of Austin since 1987, SXSW has grown to become one of the biggest events in the global music calendar, attracting hundreds of thousands of musicians, creatives, filmmakers, media companies and music industry executives to the state of Texas every March.
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Amy Winehouse, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and Wet Leg are just a few of the music artists who played the festival early in their careers.
Previous guest speakers have included Dave Grohl, U.S. president Barack Obama, Steven Spielberg, Michelle Yeoh and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, while Twitter, Foursquare and Airbnb are among the tech start-ups that SXSW famously helped launch.
Next year’s debut of SXSW London continues the event’s global rollout, which began in 2023 with the launch of an Asia Pacific edition in Sydney, Australia.
The second installment of SXSW Sydney takes place Oct. 14-20 with the main U.S. SXSW festival and conference scheduled for Mar. 7-17 in Austin. The addition of a new London edition makes the event series “an indispensable three-stop tour for the global creative community,” said organizers in a press release.
Although 2025 will be the first time that a SXSW-branded event has taken place in Europe, the organization did team up with Mercedes-Benz to host an annual conference, called the me Convention, between 2017 and 2019 in Germany and Sweden, targeted at the tech, design and creative communities.
“We couldn’t be more excited to bring the SXSW experience to London,” said SXSW co-president and chief brand officer Jann Baskett in a statement. He called next year’s planned event “an incredible new opportunity to highlight the elements that make SXSW unique in one of the most vibrant cities in Europe.”
Randel Bryan, managing director of SXSW London, said the festival “will build on Austin’s incredible legacy” by providing “a platform for the next generation of creative talent.”
While detailed plans for SXSW London are yet to be announced, organizers said the event will be held in dozens of venues, art galleries and clubs in the East London district of Shoreditch and will have its own “distinctive personality,” reflecting the U.K. capital city’s “internationally renowned cultural life and creativity.”
Alongside keynote talks and music showcases, the conference will include “boundary pushing” visual arts, design and fashion programming, with exhibitions and interactive and immersive experiences taking place in public spaces across East London. The city’s proximity to other major creative and tech centers in Europe will also shape programming as organizers look to attract creative talent from across the continent.
Commenting on the announcement, London mayor Sadiq Khan called the plans “a historic opportunity” for the city “to once again bring the world’s most exciting talent together.”
In April 2021, it was announced that SXSW had signed a “lifeline” deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC, making P-MRC a stakeholder and long-term partner with the Austin festival. P-MRC is the parent company of Billboard.
50 Cent has filed a defamation lawsuit against his ex Daphne Joy over her public accusations that he raped and physically abused her, calling them a “calculated attack” of false allegations designed to destroy his reputation.
In a case filed Monday in Houston court, the rapper (real name Curtis Jackson) says Joy (Daphne Joy Narvaez) made her claims as retaliation after the rapper sought legal action to take sole custody of their son in the wake of a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs that accused Joy of being a “sex worker.”
50 Cent’s lawyers say the allegations against him were nothing more than an attempt to “destroy his personal and business reputation, harm Jackson’s commercial and business interests, negatively affect his custody case, and prevent him from seeing his son.”
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“As apparently intended by Narvaez, Jackson has been subjected to extensive public ridicule, hatred, and contempt,” his attorneys write in the complaint, obtained by Billboard. “Jackson brings this action for defamation…in order to vindicate his rights and protect his reputation from Narvaez’s calculated attack.”
Included as an exhibit to Monday’s lawsuit is a letter the rapper’s attorneys sent to Joy last month, demanding that she remove the posts and issue a retraction. They say she responded by demanding “millions of dollars” and for 50 Cent to drop his custody case in return for removal of the post.
“Narvaez refuses to take down or remove the defamatory post unless he complies with extortive demands, including the payment of large sums of money and forfeiting his meritorious custody action,” Jackson’s lawyers write.
Joy could not immediately be reached for comment.
The dispute dates back to March, when Joy’s name was mentioned in a wide-ranging sexual abuse lawsuit filed against Sean “Diddy” Combs by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones. In that complaint, Jones claimed that Combs had “bragged” about paying Joy and other women a “monthly stipend” for sex.
Days later, Joy posted a scathing statement about Jackson to Instagram: “Let’s put the real focus on your true evil actions of raping me and physically abusing me,” she wrote at the time. “You are no longer my oppressor and my God will handle you from this point on.”
In his lawsuit on Monday, Jackson says that Joy’s blistering accusations were a response to his decision to “take legal action” to seek custody of their 11-year old son Sire in the wake of the lawsuit against Diddy. “Upon learning of the troubling allegations in the Combs litigation, Jackson came to the reasonable conclusion that it was not in his child’s best interest for Narvaez to have full custody,” the suit states.
Courts have made it difficult for “public figures” like a famous rapper to sue for defamation. They must prove that someone like Joy made her statements with “actual malice” – meaning she knew they were false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. But in Monday’s complaint, 50 Cent’s lawyers say Joy’s “unequivocally false” statements meet that difficult standard.
“Narvaez knows that Jackson did not rape or physically abuse her, yet she knowingly published the false statements to her almost 2 million followers on Instagram,” 50’s lawyers write. “Narvaez published the defamatory post, and refuses to remove it, out of sheer hatred and ill will toward Jackson.”
GOAL — a sustainability program developed by founding members Oak View Group, State Farm Arena and its NBA sports tenant the Atlanta Hawks, Fenway Sports Group and green building expert Jason F. McLennan — has released a report outlining the impact of its first year of work.
The group’s 2024 Impact Report reflects data from 40 U.S., Canada and U.K. venues, including large-scale facilities that regularly host music programming like Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, Southern California’s Acrisure Arena and Austin’s Moody Center. GOAL (which stands for Green Operations & Advanced Leadership) sets out to collect data and build a roadmap for a more sustainable live event and venue industry. The report laid out current member performance and identified what future benchmarks could mean for the environment.
The report states that member venues diverted 32% of waste through reusing, composting and recycling over the last year. If that diversion rate reached 90% for all GOAL members, they could avoid emissions “equal to driving to the moon and back 75 times in a standard gas-powered car,” according to the report.
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The average member venue used 14.48 million gallons of water over the year. If each member reduced their water usage by 5%, it would be enough water for every citizen in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. to have one glass of water.
“The sports and entertainment industry has historically prioritized marketing over positive environmental impact, with venues making declarative statements about sustainability without necessarily following up with concerted action,” said McLennan in the report. “As we move forward, venues must hold themselves and each other accountable, and a consistent rubric for evaluation is essential to build confidence and drive continuous improvement.”
The report also outlines individual efforts at various member venues, with Tampa’s Amalie Arena installing an on-site central energy plant in 2022 to generate electric energy on site, a project that brought the arena’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions (direct greenhouse emissions that occur from sources controlled or owned by an organization and indirect greenhouse emissions associated with the purchase of electricity, steam, heat or cooling down, respectively) to 51% less than the average NHL arena. New Jersey’s Prudential Center purchased two electric Zambonis, while Atlanta’s State Farm Arena is in the process of quantifying all of its natural gas emissions so they can be offset. The average NBA Arena currently produces 1,611 metric tons of Scope 1 carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, three GOAL Members — State Farm Arena, Climate Pledge Arena and UBS Arena in New York — have achieved the U.S. Green Building Council’s TRUE Zero Waste Certification, which means they send at least 90% of their total waste to recycling, compost, donation or for reuse.
“I love GOAL. It’s the most important thing we’ve done toward sustainability,” OVG chairman/CEO Tim Leiweke told Billboard in March. “It’s hugely important that we get other people in the industry committed to GOAL. That’s one of [OVG’s] highest priorities.”
Find the complete report here.
Influential shareholder advisory groups Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis advised Universal Music Group (UMG) investors to vote their disapproval of a UMG compensation report that details CEO Lucian Grainge‘s 2023 pay package, which included a one-time $100 million stock and options award, when it’s put to an advisory vote at UMG’s annual meeting on May 16.
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It’s the second year in a row that ISS and Glass Lewis have criticized Grainge’s compensation package –with ISS calling it “excessive” and Glass Lewis saying it has “severe reservations” about UMG’s remuneration report – and it could stir opposition among investors, many of whom expressed reservations about payouts at last year’s annual meeting.
UMG did not respond to a request for comment.
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While investor advisory votes are non-binding and Grainge and other UMG executives are expected to keep their compensation regardless of the outcome, they are considered a measure of investor sentiment, which has hardened in recent years.
Last year, a slim majority of UMG investors – roughly 59% of shares – voted in favor of the executive pay packages for Grainge, who has been CEO of UMG since 2010, and his deputy CEO Vincent Vallejo, at the company’s annual meeting.
Other media and entertainment companies have fared worse. Investors in Cumulus Media overwhelmingly rejected CEO Mary Berner‘s $4.5 million 2023 compensation earlier this month. Last June, 53% of Live Nation shares were voted against CEO Michael Rapino‘s nearly $139 million 2022 compensation package.
Rapino and Live Nation’s president/CFO Joe Berchtold, who earned $52.4 million in 2022, were the best paid music executives of that year, and the board of the world’s largest concert promotion and ticketing company said that pay reflected “strong leadership decisions” made during the pandemic that contributed to a record-breaking $16.7 billion in Live Nation revenue in 2022.
Grainge, 64, was the third highest paid music executive of 2022, having made a total compensation of 47.3 million euros ($49.7 million) thanks to a 28.8 million euros ($30.3 million) performance bonus in addition to a base salary of 15.4 million euros ($16.2 million).
For 2023, Grainge’s base salary and cash bonus were reduced by half to 7.5 million euros (just over $8 million) and 15.16 million euros (nearly $16.3 million), respectively. The significant boost to his total compensation is owed to a one-time transition equity award worth 92,406,852 euros (roughly $100 million) that is comprised of 50% restricted stock units and 50% performance stock options. The performance stock options vest over the coming five years and can only be excised once UMG’s stock hits certain thresholds. UMG’s stock last traded at 29.23 euros ($31.44).
Taking into account other short-term and long-term incentives and benefits, Grainge’s total 2023 compensation is 138,814,000 euros or $128,264,000 based on a monthly average foreign exchange rate of 0.924.
The shareholder advisory firms were aligned in their concerns over how UMG’s pay practices compared to similar companies and argued the one-time transition award was not sufficiently linked to the company’s stock performance.
ISS said Grainge’s pay was more than 25 times higher than the median pay of CEOs from a peer group that included companies like Spotify and Vivendi.
In its report, Glass Lewis cited an alert published by Eumedion, the Dutch Corporate Governance Forum for institutional investors, which said it was “unclear if the company can count on societal support for the CEO’s total remuneration … in addition to the dissent shareholders expressed at the company’s 2023 general meeting.”
UMG said in its annual report that “the increase in remuneration year-over-year is primarily driven by the transition to a more performance-based and share-based remuneration package.”
UMG’s stock rose 17% in 2023, “which it believes is indicative of the success of its recent remuneration practices in incentivizing the creation of value,” according to the Glass Lewis report.
ISS also recommended investors vote against the election of Bill Ackman, the billionaire investor whose Pershing Square Capital Management owns 10.25% of UMG, and also against Cyrille Bollore, Manning Doherty, Catherine Lawson-Hall, James Mitchell and Vincent Vallejo, because the board “lacks sufficient independence among its members.”
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: A deep-dive into whether rappers like Kendrick Lamar and Drake can sue each other for defamation over wild allegations in diss tracks; a lawsuit from TikTok over an “unprecedented” law banning the app from the U.S.; Britney Spears settles her divorce case; and much more.
THE BIG STORY: Defamatory Dissing?
Over the weekend, as Kendrick Lamar and Drake exchanged diss tracks filled with wild accusations, spectators on social media began to wonder if either rapper could be setting themselves up for legal trouble: “Has anyone ever filed a defamation lawsuit over a diss track before?” joked Matt Ford, a legal reporter at the New Republic, on Saturday night.An actual lawsuit seems unlikely, for the simple reason that any rapper responding to a diss track with a team of lawyers would be committing reputational suicide. But the discussion got us thinking: Could a rapper like Drake or Kendrick sue over the kind of scathing insults we saw this weekend?While diss tracks filled with extremely specific invective (and we mean extremely) could certainly lead to a libel lawsuit in theory, legal experts tell Billboard that such a case would face not just legal challenges but also practical problems. Go read our full story here.
Other top stories this week…
TIKTOK SUES US OVER BAN – TikTok and parent company ByteDance filed a federal lawsuit aimed at overturning recently-passed legislation in the U.S. requiring the Chinese company to sell the popular app or face a national ban. The companies called the legislation an “unprecedented” and unconstitutional action aimed at “singling out” one company and “silencing” more than 170 million Americans who use TikTok.BRITNEY DIVORCE FINALIZED – Britney Spears reached a settlement to finalize her divorce from husband Sam Asghari, resolving their 14-month marriage according to the terms of “a written agreement” – likely a reference to a reported “ironclad prenup” that Asghari signed before their 2022 wedding.ASTROWORLD TRIAL DELAYED – The first civil trial for Travis Scott, Live Nation and others over their alleged roles in the 2021 disaster at the Astroworld music festival had been set to kick off this week, but the proceedings were postponed due to a tricky dispute over whether Apple – which aired an exclusive livestream of the fateful concert – can potentially be held liable.TOMMY LEE ABUSE CASE TOSSED – A Los Angeles judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee of sexually assaulting a woman in a helicopter in 2003, ruling that she had failed to allege any kind of “cover-up” – a key requirement under the California statute she cited to file the lawsuit. It ain’t over yet, though: The judge gave her a chance to refile an amended complaint within 20 days.MORGAN WALLEN UPDATE – The criminal case against Morgan Wallen for allegedly throwing a chair off the roof of a six-story Nashville bar is moving forward after an initial court hearing. The star, who did not appear in person and has not yet entered a plea, is facing three felony counts of reckless endangerment over the incident, in which the chair landed just feet from several police officers standing on the street below. AI SENATE HEARING – Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl and other industry bigwigs were on Capitol Hill last week for a Senate hearing on the NO FAKES Act, a proposed federal law that would allow individuals to sue over the use of their name, likeness or voice without permission in “digital replicas” like AI-powered deepfakes. Go read Kristin Robinson’s entire breakdown of the hearing here.NICK PRODUCER LIBEL SUIT – Former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider filed a defamation lawsuit against Warner Bros. Discovery and others behind an explosive documentary called Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, alleging that the series wrongly implied that he had sexually abused the child actors he worked with.
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Atlantic Records has hired veteran executive Luis “Lu” Mota as evp of A&R, the label announced on Tuesday (May 7). Mota, who’ll work out of Atlantic’s NYC headquarters and report to co-president of Black Music Lanre Gaba, arrives from Columbia Records where since 2018 he was instrumental in the signing and developing of hip-hop stars […]
Mexican hitmaker Peso Pluma has signed with CAA in all areas. The corridos singer has had a massive year leading regional Mexican music’s global movement, all while making history along the way. In 2023 alone, Peso Pluma entered 24 songs on the Hot 100, including the global smash hit “Ella Baila Sola,” his collaboration with […]